Re: Request for comments on new disk installation plan
Reid Priedhorsky <reid@reidster.net> writes:
> On Sun, 13 Mar 2005 14:00:11 +0100, Bob Alexander wrote:
> >
> > 2) All other FS should go with LVM2
>
> Roberto recommended this too. I guess I'm skeptical on this because I
> don't really want to deal with a new tool, and I want my filesystems to be
> accessible w/o special tools. Also, I'm running kernel 2.4 and have no
> desire to upgrade at this time. :)
I also strongly recommend you to use LVM. I use it since several
years (LVM in the kernel and LVM1 user space tools) and since a couple
of months on a couple of debian systems (device mapper (DM) in the
kernel and LVM2 user space tools) and *really* don't want to miss it.
It gives you so much flexibilty. Resize file system and logical
volumes when you need it, it's very easy. If you need a new file
system, say for NFS export to some diskless client, a file system with
special mount options, a temporary file system for some testing, ...
just call a couple f commands and that's it.
With LVM many people tend to make quite a number of different file
systems. I have e.g.
$ df
Filesystem 1k-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/vg0/root 126931 105440 14938 88% /
/dev/sda1 54416 4696 46911 10% /boot
/dev/vg0/var 507748 391477 116271 78% /var
/dev/vg0/news 2014611 1967608 47003 98% /var/spool/news
/dev/vg0/usr 2579707 2166279 282356 89% /usr
/dev/vg0/local 515940 488020 6949 99% /usr/local
/dev/vg0/ftp 1031880 753735 278145 74% /usr/local/ftp
/dev/vg0/opt 253871 50039 193347 21% /opt
/dev/vg0/home 8254992 7812427 107021 99% /home
/dev/vg0/galois 63461 31195 28990 52% /tftpboot/galois
/dev/vg0/tux 63461 18065 42120 31% /tftpboot/tux
tmpfs 452936 4676 448260 2% /tmp
/dev/vg1/bulk 157398860 134714580 19486124 88% /usr/local/bulk
/dev/vg0/old 63461 52398 8442 87% /OLD
/dev/vg0/tuxbox 126931 66055 54323 55% /tftpboot/tuxbox
(Yes, I know I need a new disk and indeed the 200 GB drive already is
here and waits to be installed.)
> > 3) How can you write that /usr contains /home ?
>
> Home directories are under /usr/home, and /home is a symlink to /usr/home.
> Same deal with /var at the moment.
/usr/home reminds me of old SunOS 4.1 days :)
Anyway, on Linux /usr/home or symlinks for /var are unusual and are
quite often the result of not having enough space in the partition
originally reserved for that file system. People move it to other
file system with more space and create a symlink. Doing that is past
history after havong LVM. When you're short of space, just lvextend
the logical volume and resize2fs the ext2/3 file (or analogue for
other file system types).
> > 4) Consider GRUB as LILO replacement
>
> I've thought about it. Again, inertia holds me back. What concrete
> advantages would I gain by switching for a system that has a single boot
> volume, boots a single OS, and reboots rarely?
If you don't install new kernel very often, grub doesn't give much
advantages. When installing a new kernel, you have to call the lilo
map installer, /sbin/lilo. With grub, you don't need that. grub has
some other nice feature, like a nice command line with TAB expansion,
ability to traverse file systems and cat'ing files, booting with
BOOTP/DHCP/TFTP over networks, etc.
urs
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